I know a lot of you out there are nuts about flying. It’s an expensive hobby, but someone’s got to do it. How else would I be able to get to Bangladesh? If you’re crazy about flying and I mean straight loony about it, then you won’t be afraid to learn how to fly all by yourself. Just kidding. No one in their right mind would let you jump into the cockpit of a plane without hours of experience behind a simulator. That’s where the CAE 7000 Series full-flight simulators come in.

British Airways Executive Club members have access to these top-of-the-line simulators which offer a wrap-around display, seating for a full cockpit crew, automated vocal warnings and full motion feedback. Even better - if you decide you want one in your home, it only costs fourteen million dollars to have CAE install and maintain it for you. Start saving now, because we both know that Microsoft Flight Simulator and Afterburner aren’t getting you anywhere. Neither will this thing, but it’s a better start.

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Steve Fossett has been missing for quite some time. Having disappeared during a solo flight expedition without a trace of evidence left in his wake, search teams promptly set out in an effort to discover what became of the millionaire adventurer.  On Monday, a hiker had discovered identification with Fossett’s name on it. Aerial surveillance revealed a wreckage near the town of Mammoth Lakes. California.

“We’re not certain that it belongs to Steve Fossett, but it certainly has his name on the ID,” said Mammoth Lakes, California, Police Chief Randy Schienle.

Is this case closed? I believe risk assessor Robert Davis, who would refuse to assume that Fossett was dead (back in February when his death was declared official), would be satisfied now.

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Oobject has posted 10 videos of ejection seat tests that show the safety measures involved in testing a fighter jet ejection seat in action.  If you thought crash testing cars was extreme, check out some of these videos of pilots risking their lives in the name of safety testing. No crash test dummies here, folks. Only live flesh and bone are propelled in these videos.

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It seems wind records aren’t the only vehicular-based records being broken this year. Pictured above is the 66-pound unnamed unmanned flying machine that broke a world record for the longest-lasting unmanned flight. It remained airborne for an unbelievable 83 hours and 37 minutes.

That’s three and a half days of non-stop flight thanks to it’s power source: lithium-sulfur batteries charged via solar panels during the day. The craft remained steady at a height of 60,000 feet while being flown by an autopilot guided by GPS. Who says you need a piloting license to operate an aircraft, let alone an actual pilot?

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Whenever I arrive at an airport, I need to get online right away. It’s not enough they’re overcharging me for my ticket, now they want to charge me $7 for 24 hours of internet. My next flight is in three hours, what could I possibly need 24 hours of internet for. What a rip-off.

Thanks to Felix Geisendörfer of debuggable.com, he’s shown the man that we know when we’re being fed shit by hacking into the Atlanta airport’s network. After several tried and true methods, Felix discovered that by simply placing “/?.jpg” at the end of his favorite URLs, he could visit sites for free. Nice job Felix, you’ve ripped the system and ended fascism.

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Let’s face it, we all want to be as cool as The Rocketeer. Fighting Nazis as a masked hero with a jetpack doesn’t get any cooler. Now a jetpack is hitting the mainstream market. Martin Jetpack is the world’s first practical jetpack and it was launched in action at Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture, right around the time of Virgin’s White Knight 2 launch.

Though the FAA is labeling it as an “experimental ultralight airplane, equipped with a gas-powered, V-4 piston engine and two ducted fans that provide the lift,” we all know it’s a jetpack used to fight off zombie Nazis. With the Martin Jetpack, one is able to hover for around 30 minutes and reach heights up to 8,000 feet. Good luck completing that nauseating 15 hour flight training after purchasing one for $100,000. Which, surprisingly enough, is way cheaper than those Rocket Belts.

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Traveling across time-zones can cause hell to your psyche. Jet lag causes some people to lose all sense of night and day. Ticketime integrates both a boarding pass card and a wristwatch into one electronic paper device, in hopes to sync your schedule with your destination before you arrive.

When you receive the Ticketime from your airline, the flight company presets the tear-off wristwatch to your destinations local time. The device is then returned back to the airline on your return flight, in the meantime, keeping you up to snuff with your sleep cycle. (more…)